A New Light (The Astral Wanderer Book 1), D'Artagnan Rey [best romantic novels to read .TXT] 📗

in thought. “Hmm, everything else sounds like it would be affected by Mana-draining or something similar. But that ringing is an odd effect.” She folded her arms and gestured to the sword with her head. “Show me then.”

Devol drew it, held it up, and closed his eyes as he summoned his Anima and began to release power to the majestic.

Rogo returned with a box in his lower arms. “Hey, boss. I brought the materi—” As the blade began to charge, the light poured into it and illuminated the room with a bright glare. The melian slapped his upper hands over his eyes and surprised shouts and gasps issued from the other smiths. When he realized that he might be blinding them, the boy dimmed the light hastily and looked around with genuine concern.

Macha blinked rapidly but otherwise, showed very little reaction. “I didn’t expect it to look like that,” she admitted. “The bright light could be useful on its own. It is certainly an interesting majestic. I’m honestly rather excited to do some research now.”

Wulfsun regarded her with a trace of suspicion. “You aren’t thinking about adding anything, are ya?”

“Adding?” Devol asked and looked at the head smith. “Adding to what? The sword? I overheard Zier and Vaust talk about modifications or something.”

The daemoni nodded. “I’ve found ways to make simple modifications to majestics,” she explained. “Similar to how one would with an exotic, although it takes considerably more materials and much more skill than most are capable of.” She waved a hand dismissively. “But given that we don’t know what it does, it would not be smart to do so right now. But should we have a better grasp of it…” She leaned forward and smiled at the young Magi. “I would be more than happy to play with it to see what we can create.” He looked away from the eager master smith and merely inclined his head in acknowledgment.

“Is it safe to look now?” the melian smith asked, his hands still over his eyes.

Macha sighed and straightened. “It’s been safe,” she replied and tossed him a mold of a sword when he lowered his hands, which he snatched out of the air. “Put the materials you brought with you down. Then, I need you to fetch a bag of cobalt dust and enough diament glass to make a blade of that size.”

“Diament glass?” Rogo placed the box on a table and when he turned to look at her, she stared impassively at him. “Uh…right, boss!” he said and took the mold with him as he hurried to another room.

“I’ll let you know what I find,” she promised, turned to them, and smiled at Devol. “And you be sure to do the same.”

“Yes, ma’am.” he agreed with a polite bow.

Wulfsun chuckled and patted him on the back. “All right, boyo. Say your goodbyes for now. It is time to eat.”

Chapter Nineteen

“Rogo the smithy?” Jazai repeated after he swallowed his mouthful of potato. “Yeah, that’s his real name. Melian’s don’t have family names or clan names like most of the other races. They use their profession as a type of marker of who they are.”

“What about when they are kids?” Devol asked as he scarfed his beef and rice. “Was he Rogo the kid?”

“He would have been Rogo son of… What was his father’s name?” the other boy asked as he tapped his fork on the side of his plate.

“Rogo son of Toro,” Asla answered as she finished her juice. “Or Rogo son of Toro the forger. They can get somewhat wordy so their first names are usually simple.”

“I see.” He moved his empty bowl to the side. “By the way, Wulfsun said we’ll head out on our mission in a couple of days.”

“Zier said something similar.” The scholar’s apprentice looked at Asla. “Did Freki give you an update?”

She nodded, pierced a small piece of fish with a claw, and raised it to her mouth. “Yes, he also told me it will be to return a package to the order.”

“So a simple retrieval mission?” Devol asked and his dejection colored his tone. “Like madame Nauru said.”

“Yeah, that’s the long and short of it,” Jazai agreed. “I’m not surprised that our first mission alone would be something so simple.”

“I wonder why they haven’t given us the specifics.” He picked his cup of water up. “I would think it would be important for us to know what we’re looking for and all that before we set off, right?”

“It could be they don’t know the specifics themselves,” Asla pointed out and swallowed the piece of fish. “Freki said that we might meet someone to recover it.”

“And can’t they use the portals?” Devol asked. “That seems faster and safer.”

“They might not be a member of the Templars,” the young scholar reasoned as he began to eat a soft yellow dessert cake. “We have partners who help the order and some alliances with brokers and guilds will send those looking for us to certain anchor points. But only the most trusted among them have the ability to open the portal or even know where some of the anchors that lead here are. Otherwise, even if you find one of the anchors, a Templar will come to meet you if you try to access it.”

“Oh.” He frowned as he recalled the day he had opened the portal. “I wasn’t a member of the Templars so how did I get through?”

Asla glanced at him. “You mentioned that you had opened it but that you used your majestic to do so, correct?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Now that I think about it, both Mr. Lebatt and Wulfsun seemed surprised at that.”

“Maybe that’s simply another facet of your majestic,” Jazai suggested. “It’s starting to sound like a real multi-tool kinda deal. I wish you had more control over it.”

Asla frowned and her ears twitched. “No kidding.”

Devol chuckled but he did agree with them. His majestic seemed far more useful and fascinating than he had given it credit for